Ash
The common ash tree (fraxinus excelsior) is a widely occurring broadleaved species and can grow to be very large, 20 - 30m tall with a very wide spread. Older trees have a greyish brown bark with deep cracks.
Younger trees have a silvery, grey stem.
The trees are one of the last to come into leaf in the spring and amongst the first to lose their leaves. The buds are a very distinctive black, with flowers which appear in April near the tips of the twigs.
The sex of the plant is very complicated. You can read all about it in Eva Wallanders' Phd!
The leaves are pinnate, a central stem with 9 - 13 leaflets.
Further reading:
Silviculture of Broadleaved woodland
J Evans
FC bulletin 62
(all photos used with permission from Malvern coppicing, treeblog and woodlands.co.uk)
Comments on this article
David Hooper 25 April, 2011
I've planted a small wood and hope to coppice it in due course. How do you decide when to do this? Should you cut it young to encourage new growth? I've felled one or two teenage trees and they have not resprouted at the bottom.
Tracy 4 May, 2011
Hi David
What kind of trees have you planted? When we know that I can find someone to help you.
Has anything been eating the new growth on the trees that you cut, or have they just not grown?
Tracy